Upright-piano action.



A. KLEIN.

UPRIGHT PIANO ACTION.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 17.1915.

WITNESSES w A TTORNEYS ADOLF KLEIN, OF NEVJ YORK, N. Y.

UPRIGHT-PIANO ACTION.

Application filed July 17, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ADoLF KLEIN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Upright-Palm Actions, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to musical instruments and has particular reference to the actions of upright pianos.

The principal object of the invention is to provide means whereby the hammer may be held in check at any desired distance or position from the string, the means, however, being adjustable according to the desire of the operator or the maker of any particular type of instrument.

lVith the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists in the arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed, and while the invention is not restricted to the exact details of construction disclosed herein, still for the purpose of illustrating a practical embodiment thereof reference is had to the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters designate the same parts in the several. views, and in which Figure l is a side elevation showing the action in normal idle position; Fig. 2 is a similar view but with the parts in check; and Fig. 3 is a view indicating the novel features of the invention in the position they occupy while the key is being struck and the hammer is being thrown rearwardly.

In the general make-up of the devices shown, the parts are arranged and operate in a manner similar to the common or well known form of upright piano actions, such features including a hammer 10 mounted upon a butt 11 pivoted at 12 upon a stationary flange 13 and adapted to strike a string 14. At '15 is another stationary flange to which is pivoted a wippen 16 having an upward rigid extension 17 to which is connected at 18 a jack 19 adapted to cooperate directly with the butt 11 to throw the hammer or control its movements in connection with the features described below. wippen 16 is operated as hereto-fore by means of an abstract 20 pivoted at 21 and acted upon at its opposite end by the key 22.

Specification of Letters Patent.

The

Serial No. 40,440.

The upper end of the jack constitutes a while the hammer is swinging around its pivot. Lateral movement or displacement of the jack with respect to the butt is pre vented by means of a finger 23 carried by the butt and projecting into a groove 241 in the rear portion of the head 19.

lVhen the key is struck causing the jack to make a quick action upwardly upon the butt causing the hammer to strike the string, all lifting contact of the head upon the rounded shoulder takes place practically at the point indicated in Fig. 3, but while the hammer is rebounding from the string, the head glides along the shoulder and occupies the position shown in Fig. 2 where its front face 25 engages squarely against the shoe 26 of a back check 27 adjustably secured to and carried by the butt. The back check is pivoted at 28 to an arm 29 extending forwardl and downwardly from the butt and the member 27 is held forwardly against an ad justing screw 30 by means of a spring 31. The screw bears rearwardly through the arm 29 against a wear plate 32 carried on the front face of the back check. The spring 31 is only strong enough to retain the back check seated forwardly against the screw and hence readily yields to the rearward adjustment of the back check. It follows, therefore, that the back check is practically rigidly connected to the butt so far as the chucking operation is concerned. As shown in Fig. 2, when the key is held depressed, the jack head 19 will be held positively in position between the shoulder and the shoe 26, and while so held the hammer is positively held from movement in either direction, the adjustment of the back check determining the distance of the hammer from the string when so checked. hen the hammer is checked, additional force applied to the key acting upwardly upon the fly, tendlng to throw the hammer toward the string, will be resisted by the back check bearing against the head 19, the head itself being held from giving way in such direction by contact with the shoulder 11. The jack, however, is always perfectly free to drop back to normal position upon release of the piano key coincidently with the return of the hammer forwardly to its idle position Patented June 27, 1916. i

under the influence of gravity and the spring 33, the back check at such time swinging freely forwardly from the head.

The active contact between the head and the shoulder is relieved by means of the toe 34 of the jack striking against a stop 35 carried by an adjusting screw 36 on a fixed bracket 37. When the 'wippen 16 carries the jack up *ardly, said toe strikes against the stop 35, thereby turning the jack forwardly around its pii'ot 18 against the force of a light spring 38 placed between the toe and the front end of the wippen. This spring 38 furthermore insures that the head of the jack will always occupy its position nearest to the pivot 12 of the butt when idle, keeping the linger 23 always projected into the groove 24:.

of the back cheek.

ADOLF KLEIN. lVitnesses:

E. F. MURDOGK, P111111 D. RoLLIIAUs.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

